Subtitle sidebar

The subtitle sidebar lists every line of the current subtitle file in a scrollable panel next to mpv. Use it to reread lines you missed, look ahead, jump to any line, or copy a stretch of dialogue.

Using the sidebar

Press \ to open or close it. The sidebar is on by default. Set subtitleSidebar.enabled to false to turn it off, or subtitleSidebar.autoOpen to true to open it at startup.

• Click a line to seek to it. With a line focused from the keyboard, Enter seeks to it.
• The current line is highlighted and kept in view as playback moves (autoScroll).
• Hovering the list pauses playback (pauseVideoOnHover).
• Switching media or subtitle track updates the list.

The sidebar needs a subtitle file SubMiner can parse. Tracks that mpv renders itself, such as embedded ASS tracks, leave it empty. With no lines loaded, the sidebar shows a Generate Japanese subtitles button that opens subtitle generation. You can also open generation any time with Ctrl+Shift+G.

For karaoke and animated ASS subtitles, SubMiner merges the per-frame effect lines into one clean line per cue.

Copying dialogue

1. Drag across the text to select it. The selection can span several lines, and you can scroll to extend it.
2. Press Ctrl/Cmd+C or click Copy.

SubMiner copies the text in subtitle order, without timestamps, with a blank line between cues. Dragging does not seek, and auto-scroll pauses while you have a selection. Press Escape to clear it. Changing media or subtitle track, or closing the sidebar, also clears it.

Layout

subtitleSidebar.layout has two modes:

• overlay: the sidebar floats over mpv and does not change the player window.
• embedded: reserves space on the right of the player and moves the video over, so the list doesn't cover it. Placement depends on your compositor. If the geometry comes out wrong, switch back to overlay.

Configuration

All keys live under subtitleSidebar. Defaults are in the configuration reference.

Key	What it does
enabled	Turn the sidebar on or off
autoOpen	Open the sidebar when the overlay starts
layout	overlay or embedded
toggleKey	Toggle key, as a KeyboardEvent.code value such as Backslash
pauseVideoOnHover	Pause playback while the pointer is over the list
autoScroll	Keep the current line in view
css	Styling, see below

css takes CSS properties (font-family, font-size, color, background-color, opacity) and these custom properties:

Property	Styles
--subtitle-sidebar-max-width	Maximum sidebar width
--subtitle-sidebar-timestamp-color	Timestamp text
--subtitle-sidebar-active-line-color	Current line text
--subtitle-sidebar-active-background-color	Current line background
--subtitle-sidebar-hover-background-color	Background of the hovered line

{
  "subtitleSidebar": {
    "layout": "embedded",
    "css": {
      "font-size": "18px",
      "--subtitle-sidebar-max-width": "480px",
    },
  },
}

Your css object replaces the default one as a whole. To keep a default value, copy it from the configuration reference into your object.

See keyboard shortcuts for all overlay keys.